Thirteen Announced as Alton Towers’ 2010 Psychoaster

Thirteen To Scare The Pants Off Of Unsuspecting Brits in 2010UPDATE – 3/17 New videos reveal Thirteen’s theme, one-of-a-kind element, and some POV video footage. British news shows GMTV and ITV were on location to film the first footage of Thirteen, Alton Towers highly anticipated new roller coaster. Read the full post and watch the videos, but only if you don’t mind seeing the trick Thirteen has up its sleeve. Watch the Thirteen – Alton Towers Videos.

Alton Towers has announced the name of their 2010 roller coaster previously referred to as SW6 or Secret Weapon 6. The Intamin-designed ride will be called Thirteen and it will have a dark, horror-like theme. Details are still a bit scarce, but the ride will open in March 2010, so we’ll know a lot more soon.

For now, we know that theming will be a large part of the ride. So much so that Alton Towers is dubbing Thirteen the World’s first Psychoaster. Towers Almanac, an Alton Towers fan site, has a quote from ride consultant John Wardley that sheds a little bit more light on the psychoaster distinction: “Thirteen will be the first ride to play on emotional fear and something coaster fans will not be prepared for.”

Here are some details from the official web site.

Thirteen will be based on the discovery of an unearthed ancient burial site in an area of unexplored woodland known as the Dark Forest.

Built on the site of the old Corkscrew rollercoaster, visitors will be invited to take a petrifying ride on Thirteen, venturing into the seemingly living and breathing Dark Forest. There they will face an unknown horror that has been unleashed from the ancient crypt.

The ride has been developed with the world’s leading coaster and thrill consultants who have collaborated to combine the ultimate elements of physical and psychological fear – to create what experts are dubbing a ‘psychoaster’.
– Alton Towers Thirteen Web Site

Alton Towers is already home to the world’s first dive coaster (Oblivion), B&M’s first flying coaster (Air) and a critically acclaimed inverted coaster (Nemesis). It’s cool that Alton Towers could add another stand-out roller coaster to their lineup. And, I’m glad to see that they’re continuing to do something original.

Thirteen’s Waiver & Age LimitationsUPDATE – 12/12: This is unprecedented. According to a Sun article, Thirteen will be so scary that the park is going to have riders sign a waiver and be within a specified age limit. Here’s more from the article:

The £15million ride will be restricted to 16 to 55-year-olds only and visitors limited to one ride per day “due to concerns about emotional maturity and physical health”, resort bosses said.

Adrenaline junkies will also be required to sign a waiver which assures the resort of their physical and mental health “to avoid any resulting lawsuits”.

The extra safety measures could have one of two purposes. It could be just a lot of hype to make the public believe that Thirteen’s the scariest ride known to man. Or it could be an honest effort to absolve the park from any lawsuits resulting from emotional distress cases. Either way, we won’t know until those first few ride reviews are posted in March.

UPDATE – 4/2010 Now that Thirteen has been open for a while, feel free to rate it using my Rating System and leave a short review or comment below.

What’s Your Take?
What do you think about the name and theme for Alton Towers’ new psychoaster Thirteen? How about the waiver and age limits? Do you think they’re needed or just for hype? Leave a comment below.